[Marilyn]

Some dear friends of ours married 3 years ago. Their parents were not in a position to help plan the wedding and definitely could not help pay for it. The couple had very little funds as well. He was a school teacher at the time and she a college student. They ask me to be their wedding planner and instead of bride's maid and groomsmen, they had 4 significant couples, 2 for the bride and two for the groom. My hubby and I stood with the groom. It was a wonderful experience to help them in this way. With a little creativity, they were able to have a big (~250 guest) church wedding for less than $5,000 (not including the rings). The reception was cake, punch, coffee nuts and mints, no meal or dance, but it was very nice. The reception dinner (50 guests) was at our home. We moved the living room furniture out and setup tables and were able to seat everyone. The largest single expense other than her rings, of course, was the wedding cake. We did not have anyone who could bake it as a gift so we had to use a bakery. The photographer was retired but still had his equipment and took the pictures as a wedding gift with the bride and groom paying him only his costs for the film and processing. The flowers (real) were bought bulk from a shop in a grocery store and a relative made the arrangements, corsages, boutineres, bouquets and such. We even cut greenry for the bouquets and arrangements from shrubbery and ferns in the yards of friends. The dress was from David's Bridal with a friend doing the alterations for free. There were a lot of little details and we did all the decorating the night before. I learned a lot. We printed the invitations with my inkjet printer on some handmade paper we bought at Hobby Lobby. This was a great experience. I kept a binder of what we did for future reference. We have two daughters and are currently putting them both through college.